Harvest / dance performance

How does a willow stick sound? How does it feel in the hand? What is the difference between the big and the small sticks? Between the brown and green ones? The old and the young ones? And how can they turn into a puppet, a whale’s belly or a forest, into a monster or a ship?

Choreographer Isabelle Schad, three dancers and one musician play with the possibilities of willow cuttings, creating surprising, ever-changing landscapes. HARVEST deals with mindfulness, and with the question of how we humans can work with nature, make use of it and approach it with respect in the process. In exploring the material, layering, stacking and bending the switches, twigs and branches, and in listening to the sounds of crackling and snapping in the silence, a fantastical game arises between seemingly weightless magical creatures and other small wonders.

The dancer and choreographer Isabelle Schad studied classical dance in Stuttgart and danced with many choreographers until she began to initiate her own projects in 1999. Her work is positioned at the interface between dance, performance and visual arts and appears at international festivals such as ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival, Tanz im August – International Festival Berlin, International Arts Festival Beijing. She has worked with the Goethe Institute on several occasions and is a regular guest at German Dance Platform. At Deutsche Tanzpreis 2019 Schad received an award for outstanding artistic developments in contemporary dance.

HARVEST is Isabelle Schad’s first work developed originally for a very young audience. In 2019/2020 Isabelle Schad has adapted THE BURROW, a group performance piece for adult audiences first for an audiences ages 6 and up. For FRATZ 2020, she adapted the piece for children aged 3 and up and first got acquainted with this audience. With her work she aims to reach an audience of all ages.

The Offensive Tanz für junges Publikum Berlin develops innovative dance formats for young audiences between the ages of 0 and 18, focusing primarily on production, networking and mediation. The perennial project is an association of four local, national and international partners from the contemporary dance and theatre scene for children and young people: PURPLE – International Dance Festival for a Young Audience, TANZKOMPLIZEN, Theater STRAHL, and Theater o.N.. By pooling their professional competences and creating sustainable artistic cooperations the partners seek to strengthen dance for young audiences as an art form in Berlin and beyond.

A commission by Theater o.N., produced by the Offensive Tanz für junges Publikum Berlin, supported by TANZPAKT Stadt-Land-Bund and the Senate Department for Culture and Europe Berlin. In cooperation with Wiesen 55 e.V.